Full Review

The Sony PS4 is here to wage war with Xbox One for next-gen supremacy. Is this the future of gaming? Here's our Sony PS4 review

Sony PS4 review

Love

Powerful spec

Great controller

Stylish looks

Hate

Lack of exclusive games

Not backwards compatible

Media a bit light

The Sony PlayStation 4 finally arrives to take on the Microsoft's Xbox One in a next-gen gaming war more drawn out than any product launch we've seen. But in a console battle often fought more on ethics than specs, with the hardware now in our hands, what does it all add up to?

Launched in New York back in February, the PS4 hits the US on 15 November 2013, with the UK having to wait till 29 November to get its game on. But T3's been following it all year, demoing its games for months and have had a retail unit for a few days, with access to the US networks, so we've been putting it through its paces…

Sony PS4: Size and build

The Sony PS4 is surprisingly svelte for such a serious games machine at 2.8kg, its 275 x 53 x 305mm frame both smaller and lighter than the original PS3 and even its PS3 Slim follow-up. Somehow, there's no unsightly power block to hide either. Next to the Xbox One, it's the clear aesthetic top dog, you'll feel proud to have this in your living room, and it's easily ported around the house.

Looking like a suitably futuristic if unassuming black monoltih, with all vents and most ports hidden round back, the matte/gloss aesthetic is divided by a glowing power line that glows blue at boot up before giving way to a more living room-friendly white.

WATCH: Sony PS4 unboxing video:

It looks good beneath or beside your telly, whether laying down or, as we prefer, upright (the horizontal-only Xbox One is going to require a bit of under-TV rearranging). It is, however, a little on the vulnerable side – drop one and we don't reckon it will survive.

The connections at the back are now all digital, with an aux port for the optional PlayStation Camera, Ethernet for wired online connections, an HDMI port to hook up to the telly and Optical Audio out, too.

Up front there are two discrete USB 3.0 ports to charge the wireless controllers, beneath the on/off and eject buttons that sit either side of the disc port (6 x Blu-ray, 8 x DVD). It also has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the latter syncing the controllers.

Despite the more power-packed eight-core Jaguar x86-64 processor and 1.84 TFLOPS AMD Radeon GPU, the console's innards are noticeably much quieter than the current-gen machines. While we're still not talking silent running, a very light hum when games boot up and get overly busy is about as active as it gets.

Hands on

The Sony PS4 has made its way to T3 Towers - we'll bring you our full review very soon. Meanwhile, here are our first impressions...

Sony PS4 review

Love

Powerful spec

Great controller

Stylish looks

Hate

Lack of exclusive games

Not backwards compatible

Media a bit light

Update:We've got our grubby mitts on a Sony PS4 unit but we wanted to give it a full, fair test before giving you our verdict. Stay tuned for our full review - coming very soon. Below you can find our first impressions from E3 plus our thoughts on the new interface and launch games that we've been testing out over the last few days. You'll also find our exclusive unboxing video and some gameplay from launch titles Resogun and Knack.

Deep in Sony's bunker at E3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, T3 spent a good few hours investigating the veritable might of the new PS4

In a series of demos, we got to grips, quite literally, with the new DualShock 4 controller, the PlayStation Camera, the companion iOS and Android app, and a smattering of new titles such as DriveClub, Killzone Shadow Fall and Knack, plus a Play Room demo.

Sony PS4: Controller

The controller itself is sturdy and reassuringly weighty in the palm compared to the always-a-bit-light-for-us DualShock 3, which is interesting as the Xbox One has slimmed down just as Sony has homed in on heft. It's not bulky though, and its sleekness is married to an almost textured coating on both the base and dual sticks that helps grip.

The dual sticks feel stiffer compared to the PS3's, and while this initially jars, we found with more exposure to them we actually preferred it for accuracy, though it takes some getting used to.

The triggers are now really very trigger-like indeed (although Killzone, rather bizarrely, still doesn't assign them as aim and fire) and their close placement to the shoulder buttons is a good design move that aids quick changes.

Sony PS4: Touch panel

The central touch panel is very responsive when navigating menus and a satisfying click acts as a surrogate Start button in its absence.

We actually really missed Start and Select to, well, start with (how do you pause?!), but the more time you spend with the touch panel, the more you realise what an increasingly exciting addition it is. Indeed, it's as at home replicating a touch screen as it is the movements of a PC trackpad.

Check out our Sony PS4 unboxing video:

On Killzone it brings up a secondary menu of attacks, while on Play Room it was used for everything from throwing things onto the screen to rubbing to interact with on-screen characters to moving on-screen paddles for air hockey. The bridge between smartphone games and the new raft of independent developers that PlayStation's busy pleasing is a very palpable one.

The motor rumble of the controller and speaker combine to generate some very impressive feedback, though not quite of the standard of the Xbox One's new joypad.

There's no rumble in the triggers here, but there is a real feeling of weight being moved around. At one point in the Play Room, AI bots fill the controller, and you can hear and feel them moving around inside the pad as you manipulate it. Alas, none of the demos used the new Share or Options button so we were unable to test their use.

Sony PS4: Camera

The PlayStation Camera is a bit of a micro-Kinect, following in the best tradition of EyeToy. Like Move, it reads the light bars on the rear of the DualShock 4s so that you can manipulate items on screen with it, but also reads your flailing arms to interact, too.

The resolution is decent if nothing too scary – it doesn't track your expression or engagement, but it can tell if you've covered your eyes (the crowd of AI bots on the demo hushed, before we pulled our hands away and they all cried in a really quite charming game of Peek-a-boo). It will also set your head on fire – virtually, at least – in that AR style that Reality Fighters and its Vita brethren did.

Sony PS4: App

Even more exciting was the PlayStation companion app, which will be available for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets (in this case an Sony Xperia Z tab, obviously) as well as the PS Vita.

This is what the likes of Ubisoft are using in Watch Dogs and The Division as Sony's answer to SmartGlass, but here it was used to draw objects on a very simplified version of art package and literally 'throw' them on to the big screen. It's basic so far, but again, there's real potential there if they can expand the options.

The Play Room, a thoroughly enjoyable tech demo that's not confirmed for any official release, makes great use of the cam and we think Sony would be bonkers not to include as a getting-to-grips-with-the-hardware retail release. Maybe it could be packaged with the PlayStation Camera now Sony has confirmed that omitting that from the PS4 box was a way of keeping the costs down?

Sony PS4: Interface

Interaction is swift and responsive, the smartphone/tablet ways of instant access and multitasking finally ushered into the home space. A hold of the PS button always takes you home, while the integrated social overlay has a raft of notifications and settings to toggle, not to mention devices to connect.

Some of the new interface tech is used well, such as navigating the keypad entries with the DualShock 4's gyro (just hit R3), while others are ignored: no mouse-like, touch-panlled menu controlling, alas. With the camera attached Kinect-style voice control takes over, the command precursor switching, of course, to 'Playstation...'.

The Sony share button has limited use before Sony turns on the online back end, but we tested it locally. A tap gives you video, screenshot or boradcast options, while an extended hold takes an auto 450kb screen grab for sharing, complate with contextual metadata.

Sony PS4: Games

DriveClub is a decent racer with some nice features, although graphically we weren't as blown away as we expected (though the 'Pre-Alpha, 35% complete' sign should explain that). Handling is decent, with a focus on drifting with the shoulder buttons, but the system of Fame points is what is really interesting.

You race in clubs, but as you make your way round the track, independent challenges pop up with headshots of other drivers attached. You then have a variety of durations to better the random opponent – be it cornering, average speed or, yes, drifting – for extra goodies. It certainly keeps you interested, even if you've raced well ahead, and we can only imagine the online integration that will follow.

Take a look at our Sony PS4 Knack gameplay video:

Knack is a rather basic combat brawler that has you smashing up scenery and growing your body, Katamari-style, before beating up a succession of bulky henchmen. Some twitchy camera angles aside, it's fun, though very much a 'first wave' title at first glance. Update: we've got a copy of Knack and have been playing foitr the last few days - check out our Knack review. You might also like to check out our Resogun review - another title in the launch lineup.

Have a watch of our Sony PS4 Resogun gameplay video:

Finally, Killzone Shadow Fall looks rather gorgeous, although, in forests and detailed shrubbery, the particular level we played looked bugger all like typical Killzone.

The sheer number of combat options across triggers, d-pad and touch pad baffled us to the extent that we blew ourselves up twice with a grenade before we knew what was going on, but with persistence we actually killed some people and left intrigued by exactly where the extensive weaponry and drone assistance would take us.

Sony PS4: Verdict

While we've had a bit of a play with the PS4, it still too early to reach any definitive conclusions, although we have now played some of the games (see above) and checked out the UI and Share button.

The DualShock 4, for us, is an improvement on its predecessor, more comfy in hand and with a wealth of immersive bells and whistles to see it through years of innovation. The PlayStation Camera is clever and fun rather than intrusive and being removed from the console package to keep the price low makes financial sense, though this could stymy software development focusing on the new tech in the same way Xbox struggled with Kinect support.